# Paterno (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/paterno/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Italian.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Italian |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 1,293 |
| US rank (2010) | 20,512 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 238,782 people |
| Change since 2000 | +7.1% (1,207 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Borrowed from Italian Paternò.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Paterno in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 86% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.5% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 4.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 8.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |
| Two or more races | 1.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Paterno in the United States.

## People named Paterno

- Joe Paterno, American college football coach (1926-2012)

## Similar surnames

Padron, Patron, Peterman, Petrone, Petrin, Petermann.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.